Corruption: Probe of 15 judges begins today

Barring any last minute change, the National Judicial Council, NJC, will today begin the probe of about 15 judges against whom prima facie evidence of massive corruption and breach of judicial oath of office have been established, National Mirror gathered yesterday.

Although over 40 petitions flooded the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, against serving the judical officers nationwide as at last week, only petitions that had substance were listed for treatment by the Council this week.

But about 24 hours to the sitting of the NJC, a nongovernmental group, Centre for the Rule of Law, yesterday warned the Council to be meticulous in the discharge of its statutory duty so as not to intimidate other judges from doing justice in cases before them.

In a statement which was signed by its Executive Director, Comrade Jamiu Agbabiaka, the group said the NJC must not use its action, which it said had been slated for Monday and Tuesday, to punish judges unnecessarily.

The CJN, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, yesterday, however said that the statement by the group amounted to intimidation.

According to a source close to the office of the NJC which the CJN headed, the statement by the group might have been sponsored by some of the accused judges whose conducts were questionable.

“You know that before now, some judges could do anything strange on the bench and get away with it. They were simply untouchable. Anytime they have problems, they are in the habit of running from one influential person either in the system or in the society for assistance. In fact, some of them use powerful royal fathers to help them out.

“But I can tell you, the days of crooks on the bench are numbered under this administration. This new CJN is not somebody you can approach and get away with it. So, because they have failed, they have now resorted to the use of groups to fight their cause.

“But I can tell you that the CJN is not intimidated. She has vowed to do only justice to all manners of people. If you are not guilty, you need not fear. But if you are, you must be shown the way out. “In fact, judges who are corrupt will not only be retired.

In appropriate cases, they will be recommended for prosecution. You cannot be sitting in judgement over crooks while you are a crook yourself. This is not George Orwell’s Animal Kingdom,” he said yesterday.

But the group nevertheless, warned that the NJC must exercise caution in handling the petitions against the judges.

The statement said: “The Council has fixed April 22 and 23 to consider reports on the judges alleged to have been involved in the ‘sale of judgement.

“We wish to warn that it is not every judge that has a petition against him that is guilty of the allegations.

“More often than not; most of the petitions are frivolous, vexatious and unfounded. At other times, they are borne out of the inability of litigants to have their way in the open court.”

The group said that it agreed that there were some unfortunate instances whereby some judiciary officers had brought the judiciary into disrepute.

It said because of this, all well-meaning Nigerians should support any initiative to sanitise the Third Estate of the realm.

But it added that as an organisation committed to the observance of the rule of law, equity and justice, it had watched with keen interest the recent hoopla about the affairs of the NJC, especially as it relates to the exercise of its disciplinary powers against judges.

While saying that the NJC cannot be stopped from performing its statutory role, “we wish to advise that it must be done with utmost caution, vigour, thoroughness and above all, the fear of God.

“This time, the NJC has a duty to guide against the tales of untidiness which trailed its last outing.

“It would be recalled that on that occasion, one of the judges, Justice Charles Archibong, who had hitherto been commended by the Performance Evaluation and Monitoring Committee of the same NJC, was recommended to President for compulsory retirement.

“This was in spite of the fact that the NJC Investigation Committee merely recommended that he should be issued a ‘warning’ for what was termed ‘procedural irregularities and misconduct in his utterances and conduct of cases’.

“Again, we are constrained to join the fray because we have noticed a new trend that is playing in our polity.”